The present invention is related bags, sacks and packs for storing clothing, gear or other types of articles and also preventing odors from either entering or escaping from the bag, sack or pack. The present invention also relates to camouflaged bags, sacks and packs for use by soldiers and hunters.
In situations where a person in the outdoors wishes to approach wild game, it is desirable that steps be taken to ensure that no odors or scents emanating from that person or that person's clothing and gear can be detected by the keen sense of smell of that wild animal. One solution to this problem is to provide articles of clothing that absorb odors emanating from covered or surrounded body portions. U.S. Pat. No. 6,134,718 discloses that such clothing articles (or a duffle bag or knapsack) may comprise inner and outer layers with “odor absorbing means” being enclosed between the inner and outer layers. The “odor absorbing means” may include “an odor absorbing agent” selected from the group consisting of activated charcoal, chlorophyll, baking soda, activated alumina, soda lime, zeolite, calcium oxide, potassium permanganate or a similar substance. In one example, the “odor absorbing means” takes the form of fibers treated with or having incorporated therein activated carbon or charcoal.
Activated charcoal is charcoal that has been treated with oxygen to open up millions of tiny pores between the carbon atoms and is widely used to “adsorb” odorous substances from gases or liquids. When a material “adsorbs” a molecule, the molecule is attached by chemical attraction. The highly porous activated charcoal provides countless bonding sites on its surface, where molecules attach and are trapped. As used herein, the term “adsorption” means the surface retention of solid, liquid or gas molecules, atoms or ions by a solid or liquid, as opposed to “absorption”, which means the penetration of substances into the bulk of the solid or liquid. As used herein, the term “odor-eliminating” means that at least some molecules of an odorous substance are adsorbed or absorbed by the material in question, not that all odor is eliminated.
In addition, special care is taken to remove odors normally associated with humans and other sources of odors not typically found in nature. For example, scent-free detergents are used to wash the clothing. In some cases, a natural scent that emits a desirable (non-human) odor is added to the clothing in order to cover up any remaining human and unnatural odors.
While these approaches have been used in the past to assist outdoorsman in odor control, steps must be taken to maintain the scent-free or scented state of the clothing during transport to the outdoor site. For this purpose special bags, packs and sacks have been designed which have means for blocking odors emanating from outside the bag from contaminating the scent-free or scented clothing inside the bag. More specifically, it is known to provide a bag, sack or pack comprising a layer of material designed to prevent odorous substances from entering the bag, sack or pack and being adsorbed by the clothing therein.
Conversely, in the case of sports accessory bags, it is desired that odors emanating from used athletic uniforms and footwear contained in the bag be prevented from escaping. Thus a properly constructed bag may serve either purpose, by blocking odors from entering or leaving the space enclosed by the bag.
There is a need for improvements in odor-eliminating storage bags. In the case of bags, sacks and packs used by outdoorsmen, such as hunters and soldiers, it is also desirable to provide camouflage that will blend in with a particular outdoor environment.